zaterdag 31 maart 2012

“Forever Blue, the true story of Walter O’Malley, baseball’s most controversial owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles” is the complete title of Pulizer Prize winning writer Michael D’Antonio’s book.
And yes, it’s first and foremost subject is O’Malley. His life from childhood (he grew up being a Giants fan!!), his years at Culver and Penn. How he build his enormous network and, most importantly, how he became the owner of and ran the Dodgers organization.
There is some baseball action, but it’s not the main business of this book. If you’re interested in the Dodgers and their rise under O’Mally’s ownership, you should read it. It can be a bit dry at times, but you know where it’s heading and once you’re in the late 1940’s the story unfolds before your eyes.
D’Antonio describes Brooklyn, the Brooklynites, Ebbets Field and the players with an eye for detail and you almost see yourself in the stands at Ebbets, rooting for Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, Duke Snider and all the other Boys in Blue.
It’s essential history for Dodger fans who want to know more of their team, the time before Los Angeles, how the process of moving the team went. O'Malley was often seen as a money grabbing owner, but the fact is he tried and tried to keep the Dodgers in Brooklyn.
How did the spring training stadium at Dodgertown, Vero Beach, come by the name Holman? Did you know that the Angels really were an LA team before the Dodgers came to town? These and many more facts can be found within the pages of this well written book.

vrijdag 30 maart 2012

Yes, it happened and even before the deadline. McCourt is gone! Magic Johnson, still is a popular figure in LA, and Kasten who has the necessary experience with ballclubs, and their Guggenheim Partners will hand over $ 2 billion to become owners of both the club, the stadium and 50% of the parking lots. McCourt is gone? No, that other 50% is his. Thankfully he won’t receive any money for parking on Dodger game days and he can’t do anything with his share without consent of Johnson and co. That’s a relief, but he’s still not entirely gone and that bugs me.

So we’ve seen all the news sites and the LA Times opens with “It’s showtime for Dodgers”. I’m willing to bet Magic, with Dodgers cap, will appear on the next issue of Sports Illustrated.

But enough about the US press, what about the press in my country? Did anyone pick up the news about this deal? You betcha! No big analyzing articles, but still. A selection of Dutch news sites:

maandag 26 maart 2012

Until a few days ago, I never heard of something called 'naming rights'. Bill Shaikin of the LA Times wrote about it and it scared the bejezus out of me. Was there a chance McCourt kept the naming rights and, after selling Dodger Stadium, was gonna name it Frank's McCourt? Or was he gonna sell the rights to a bank or other organization? Were we about to hear Vin Scully say: "welcome to venerable Trader joe's Stadium"?
Before all these options will surface, I want to give the potential buyers two naming options I could live with: